Descriptions and Prescriptions: Values, Mental Disorders, and the DSMs

by John Z. Sadler MD (Editor)

Overview

Most everyone agrees that having pneumonia or a broken leg is always a bad thing, but not everyone agrees that sadness, grief, anxiety, or even hallucinations are always bad things. This fundamental disjunction in how disease and disorders are valued is the basis for the considerations in Descriptions and Prescriptions.

In this book John Z. Sadler, M.D., brings together a distinguished group of contributors to examine how psychiatric diagnostic classifications are influenced by the values held by mental health professionals and the society in which they practice. The aim of the book, according to Sadler, is "to involve psychiatrists, psychologists, philosophers, and scholars in related fields in an intimate exchange about the role of values in shaping past and future classifications of mental disorders."

Contributors: George J. Agich, Ph.D., Cleveland Clinic Foundation; Carol Berkenkotter, Ph.D., Michigan Technological University; Lee Anna Clark, Ph.D., University of Iowa; K.W.M. Fulford, D.Phil., F.R.C.Psych., University of Warwick, Coventry; Irving I. Gottesman, Ph.D., University of Virginia; Laura Lee Hall, Ph.D.; Cathy Leaker, Ph.D., Empire State College; Chris Mace, M.D., M.R.C.Psych., University of Warwick, Coventry; Laurie McQueen, M.S.S.W., American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C.; Christian Perring, Ph.D., Dowling College; James Phillips, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine; Harold Alan Pincus, M.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Jennifer H. Radden, D.Phil., University of Massachusetts; Doris J. Ravotas, M.A., L.L.P., Michigan Technological University; Patricia A. Ross, Ph.D., University of Minnesota; Kenneth F. Schaffner, M.D., Ph.D., George Washington University; Michael Alan Schwartz, M.D., Case Western Reserve University; Daniel W. Shuman, J.D., Southern Methodist University; Allyson Skene, Ph.D., York University; Jerome C. Wakefield, D.S.W., Rutgers University; Thomas A. Widiger, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Osborne P. Wiggins, Ph.D., University of Louisville.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801868405
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/21/2002
Pages:	418
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.33(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Z. Sadler, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction and Background
1. Introduction
2. The Limits of an Evidence-Based Classification of Mental Disorders
3. Values, Politics, and Science in the Construction of the DSMs
Part II: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations
4. Values and Objectivity in Psychiatric Nosology
5. Survival of the Fittest? Conceptual Selection in Psychiatric Nosology
6. Technical Reason in the DSM-IV: An Unacknowledged Value
7. Implications of a Pragmatic Theory of Disease for the DSMs
8. Rethinking Normativism in Psychiatric Classification
Part III: Diagnostic Categories and Values
9. Evaluation and Devaluation in Personality Assessment
10. Values and Validity of Diagnostic Criteria: Disvalued versus Disordered Conditions of Childhood and Adolescence
11. Implications of an Embrace: The DSMs, Happiness, and Capability
12. Why Criteria of Involuntary Action Are Value Laden
Part IV: Personal and Collective Interests
13. The Hegemony of the DSMs
14. What Patient and Families Look for in Psychiatric Diagnosis
15. Softened Science in the Courtroom: Forensic Implications of a Value-Laden Classification
16. Speaking Across the Border: A Patient Assessment of Located Languages, Values, and Credentials in Psychiatric Classification
17. Psychotherapists as Authors: Microlevel Analysis of Therapists' Written Reports
Part V: Visions for the Future
18. Clinical and Etiological Psychiatric Diagnoses: Do Causes Count?
19. Defining Genetically Informed Phenotypes for the DSM-V
20. Values in Developing Psychiatric Classifications: A Proposal for the DSM-V
21. Report to the Chair of the DSM-VI Task Force from the Editors of Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, "Contentious and Noncontentious Evaluative Language in Psychiatric Diagnosis" (Dateline 2010)
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Dean F. MacKinnon

"The scholarship is of high quality and the contributors draw deeply on the literature relevant to their methodologies and perspectives. The multiplicity of approaches nicely illustrates the book's major aim: to make the process of devising a psychiatric nosology more democratic and inclusive."

From the Publisher

The scholarship is of high quality and the contributors draw deeply on the literature relevant to their methodologies and perspectives. The multiplicity of approaches nicely illustrates the book's major aim: to make the process of devising a psychiatric nosology more democratic and inclusive.
—Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D., The Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Elaine M. Scorza, MS, APRN, BC (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This book examines the influence of values by mental health professionals in the classification of psychiatric diagnoses.
Purpose: The objective of the book, according to the authors, is to stimulate the sharing of the role of values in making psychiatric diagnoses, now and in the future.
Audience: Although intended for psychiatrists, psychologists, philosophers, and scholars, the book has appeal for social workers, counselors, and nurses involved in mental healthcare. The book accomplishes this through its conversational style, and the generous use of metaphor in illustrating DSM content.
Features: The book seems appropriately targeted to its audience, illustrating examples of behavior related to DSM classification and ethical issues. The book also covers historical notations, the limits of evidence-based classification of metal disorders, and values within a well rounded discussion of the issues and, therefore, meets the objectives of the book.
Assessment: This is a stimulating book for healthcare professionals interested in the clarity and development of psychiatric diagnoses, and while most appropriate for the seasoned professional, it can be a useful stimulant to the advanced student in psychiatric healthcare professions.

Doody's Review Service

Descriptions and Prescriptions is one of the best accounts of the intense debates on the values underlying the DSM, the need for accountability in psychiatric diagnosis, and some of the chief philosophical and political issues in psychiatry.
—Steven S. Sharfstein, M.D., New England Journal of Medicine

Anyone who believes that developing the best diagnostic manual possible is an important and complicated task, and also wants to contribute to the process in a scholarly and reflective way, is well-advised to study these chapters.
—Peter Zachar, Metapsychology

This is a stimulating book for healthcare professionals interested in the clarity and development of psychiatric diagnoses, and while most appropriate for the seasoned professional, it can be a useful stimulant to the advanced student in psychiatric healthcare professions.
—Doody's Health Sciences Review

In particular, I believe this volume has explicit value for all who serve on a DSM-V committee, as well as those with an interest in nosology or medical sociology, those with a critical role in psychiatric education, or those who simply have a philosophical bent (a non-DSM character trait).
—Robert J. Van Den Bosch, M.D., Ph.D., American Journal of Psychiatry

From the Publisher

Anyone who believes that developing the best diagnostic manual possible is an important and complicated task, and also wants to contribute to the process in a scholarly and reflective way, is well-advised to study these chapters.

Metapsychology - Peter Zachar

In particular, I believe this volume has explicit value for all who serve on a DSM-V committee, as well as those with an interest in nosology or medical sociology, those with a critical role in psychiatric education, or those who simply have a philosophical bent (a non-DSM character trait).

American Journal of Psychiatry - Robert J. Van Den Bosch

Descriptions and Prescriptions is one of the best accounts of the intense debates on the values underlying the DSM, the need for accountability in psychiatric diagnosis, and some of the chief philosophical and political issues in psychiatry.

New England Journal of Medicine - Steven S. Sharfstein

Anyone who believes that developing the best diagnostic manual possible is an important and complicated task, and also wants to contribute to the process in a scholarly and reflective way, is well-advised to study these chapters.

— Peter Zachar

Metapsychology

Descriptions and Prescriptions is one of the best accounts of the intense debates on the values underlying the DSM, the need for accountability in psychiatric diagnosis, and some of the chief philosophical and political issues in psychiatry.

— Steven S. Sharfstein, M.D.

New England Journal of Medicine

In particular, I believe this volume has explicit value for all who serve on a DSM-V committee, as well as those with an interest in nosology or medical sociology, those with a critical role in psychiatric education, or those who simply have a philosophical bent (a non-DSM character trait).

— Robert J. Van Den Bosch, M.D., Ph.D.

American Journal of Psychiatry

3 Stars from Doody

The scholarship is of high quality and the contributors draw deeply on the literature relevant to their methodologies and perspectives. The multiplicity of approaches nicely illustrates the book's major aim: to make the process of devising a psychiatric nosology more democratic and inclusive.

Dean F. MacKinnon